I'm Here
by LaniAhava
Summary: When things get tough, you either give up or realize you are strong enough to face it, but sometimes, it could be more bearable when surrounded by those who love you.
1. You might die

**A/N: Just for the record, no this isn't a sequel for the** Did you know? I care about you story, **it's a standalone. A really lo~ong standalone, probably three chapters of unknown length each…**

 **Disclaimer: I do not have any ownership of KHR.**

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 **Chapter 1  
You might die…and is not a risk I can bare to face**

 _A couple of days after his father and his boss left, Tsuna was diagnosed with some cancer that had a strange pronunciation. The little boy was quickly taken to the ER after the sudden nosebleed that came out of nowhere._

 _The young mother had tried to call Iemitsu, but the man never answered. She was left alone to watch her little boy slowly fade away through treatment after treatment._

 _Then one day the doctors told her, Tsuna might not make it._

 _The little boy was her only link to Iemitsu and now she feared for its possible loss. Unable to bare the that on top of being left alone, Nana stopped visiting her son._

 _It was rather fortunate the little boy never saw this fear before he went into a deep sleep, yet he was aware of the absence of any familiarity._

* * *

 _Days passed, weeks ended, and just before the next month began again, the little lonely boy woke up. The warmth of flames was now a distant echo of a memory and the strange dreams of laughter faded away._

 _What little he could understand; the doctor spoke of miracles and his cancer went into remission meaning it no longer actively trying to kill him. Yet he doesn't care much staying in the stale cold hospital room with no mother waiting at his bedside._

 _Before the little boy's tears began to fall, the young mother, who on the day before was just finishing up her preparations to leave the town, came running through the hospital room's door._

 _Little Tsuna gave his mother a small smile, not minding how once they were home she quickly whips up simple the party for his recovery she made for him once they were at home. He was happy that after the last weeks of not knowing he will get to see another day._

 _Even though the little boy knew somewhere toward the end of his treatment, the lack of warmth from the absent grip in his tiny hand meant his mother stopped coming._

 _There will be days afterwards that the very sight of parents hugging their child on parent visiting days or the horrible blank look that enters his mother's eyes as he recovers from a simple cold brought pain and fear._

 _But its ok. She came back. That is all that it matters._

 _She's here now…_

 _~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~. . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~ . . ~_

Tsuna was happy everything was over. His tutor would live, and his friends are closer than ever. Hibari and Mukuro only fought once since he last saw them!

Speaking of which, Reborn had left a week earlier to do something in Italy. Probably to update the new training regimen for Neo Vongola Primo or worse, for inspiration.

Takeshi and Ryohei had a field trip out of town for their respective sports club. At first, they didn't want to go, but Tsuna insisted with some newfound self-confidence that they should enjoy their school time while it lasts. Ryohei left crying about what an extreme guy he was and promised to bring souvenirs. Takeshi only laughed in similar agreement.

Bianchi practically kidnapped Hayato, which wasn't hard when he was K.O. by seeing her face. They should be in Italy by now, probably trying to bond with their father. Lambo also joined them as well, but was going to be dropped off at the Bovino mansion. Something about reloading his weapons.

Tsuna is very worried and wary when the younger boy returns.

Fon decided to take I-Pin for some student and teacher bonding around the world. They should be back in a couple of weeks.

Hibari is out somewhere fighting Dino to his heart content, leaving Kusakabe in charge of overseeing Namimori.

Although he was alone without his friends, Tsuna he didn't mind. Tsuna would enjoy the quiet and lack of Reborn's insanity while it lasts. Unfortunately, after days and days of surprisingly calm from the lack of chaos from everyone, Tsuna was jumpy, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He hopes he was just being paranoid.

He was right, but it wasn't the annoying trouble related to the mafia.

If only it was.

* * *

Tsuna was humming a nonsense tone as he walked back home from the store. Just as he entered the front gate, he felt dizzy. He leans against the gate until he got his bearings back. _This is the seventh time in two days!_

Once he was feeling balanced, Tsuna opens the door, "I'm home!"

"Welcome back, Tsu-kun!" his mother shouted from the kitchen, "Can you put the groceries on the table?"

"Yeah," Tsuna placed the bag on the table and turned around to go back to his room, when everything turns dark.

* * *

Tsuna groans as he felt his body heavy. He wonders what Reborn made him do and what did he do to annoy him so much to be condemned to receive deep pain in his bones, unable to twitch a finger.

 _Wait a minute, Reborn left to do who knows what in Italy! That means something happened! Where's Mom? I hope she is alright._

After a long eternity, the teenage boy opened his eyes. What he saw was a sea of white. It took longer than he thought it was possible for his vision to adjust.

The white sea turns out to be the bed covers over his body that he knows for sure he didn't own. Starting to feel his other senses wake up, he feels a foreign sensation inside of his elbow. He barely turns his head to stare at the clear tube that was strapped into his arm. The brown-haired teen followed the tube to the machine next to his bed.

Before Tsuna can formulate his thoughts from the foggy sensation that reminds him from the days before Reborn, a door opened.

The doctor enters the room once she caught Tsuna stare. Once her steady and hard steps stopped by his bed, she pulls a chair and takes a seat.

The doctor gives him a small smile, "Glad to have you awake, Sawada-san."

"What…happened?" Tsuna whispers. Even talking was a huge effort, but the tiredness was already starting to disappear.

The doctor eyes soften for a split second before they turned indifference. She flips a page on the clipboard that was under her arm and reads through it quickly before looking up, "Comparing your lab results with your old medical records, Sawada-san, there might be a high chance of you being out of remission."

Tsuna stares at her. He isn't sure how to feel about that.

"For now, you are free to go, but expect for our call in the incoming days for the results of your status so we may help you stabilize your condition if the results show positive."

The brown-haired boy looks down and stares at his lap, "Okay."

He ignores her soft sigh before pressing a button to call in a nurse to have prep him to be checked out.

* * *

Despite Tsuna was given some medication for the pain he would get before he left the hospital, he didn't bother taking any on his way home. By the time he got home, he was dragging his feet at a snail's pace.

He opened his house's front door and felt a chill. Tsuna looks around after taking off his shoes and realized the kitchen was silent. He looks over the clock and saw it was afternoon, the time she usually making lunch.

"Mom?" Tsuna calls from the bottom of the stairs.

There was no response. He frowns. Tsuna climbed up the stairs slowly, partially from paranoia how there is something off about the situation and partially because he is too tired from the long walk from the hospital.

With a slight hesitation, Tsuna knocks on her door. To his surprise, the door creaks open. He frowns at the made bed and turns on the light. He eyes her room.

Usually her dresser is covered by hairbrushes and creams. Now it was all cleared away. Worried, he rushes to check her drawers and found them empty. Tsuna started to panic and slides her closet door open only to find it empty as well.

"She wouldn't…" he whispers and looks to see her small table next to her bed. There was an envelope.

Tsuna shakily opens it. There was some cash and a small note. The money flutters down the ground, ignored as he takes in a deep breath before reading the note.

 _You were the reason each day was bearable without your father, but now that I might lose you again, I cannot bear watching you die slowly. I'm sorry, but I cannot go through this._

 _Not again._

 _It's best for both of us not to see the worst of each other._

 _Goodbye,_

 _Nana Sawada._

Tsuna felt numb, not realizing drops of water falling on the slightly crumpled paper.

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 **A/N: Just so you know, I don't hate Nana nor Iemitsu, but there bound to be an alternative universe where she isn't much of a good mother, but in this case, I tried to touch on the fact how Nana was very young and was basically abandoned by Iemitsu's support and didn't cope well, being alone like that of lack of support of anyone and after years in such a state, she broke. Sometimes things don't work out, yet sometimes something new comes along that wouldn't happened if the former had never happened…**


	2. Making sure you're ok

**A/N: Wow such response! I actually had three chapters, but turns out they became a summary and the characters wanted more to be said (and somehow college taught me a thing or two and I wanted to hone those skills). So, don't be surprised of this story getting longer than three chapters.**

 **Disclaimer: I in no shape or form own KHR! I only wrote for practice my writing skills and gaining no profit other than the enjoyment of readers.**

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 **Chapter 2  
Making sure you're ok…and I'm glad that I did**

Kusakabe was doing his last round patrolling Namimori. He was on his way back when he passed the Sawada household. He decided to check on Sawada-san. Reports spoke of practically everyone went on vacation, even his President. Something about finally biting to death some horse.

Kusakabe hopes the boy was enjoying the vacation. Sawada does deserve it after so much constant fighting battles that seemed to never end. It must be nice to take it easy for once.

Biting his toothpick, the Vice President of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee knocks the door. Kusakabe waits for someone to open the door, but no one answers. The older boy realizes then how the house was too silent.

He frowns when he checks his watch, _It isn't late and usually Sawada's mother is at home. Unless she went shopping, but it isn't her usual day for her to leave._

Before Kusakabe decides to break into the house in a Hibari fashion, a window above him rattles open.

"Kusakabe-sempai?" a soft voice asked, "What are…you doing here?"

Kusakabe looks up and his already present frown deepens at what he sees, but quickly covers up with a greeting smile. Taking out the toothpick in his mouth, the older boy salutes, "Just checking how things are with you, Sawada-san."

Sawada slowly blinks down at him, "I'm…fine."

Kusakabe doesn't believe him by the paleness on his face and the faint trembling hands as they hold the window up. It seems Sawada knew he was caught by the way he lets out a deep breath.

"Just," he whispers almost in deep exhaustion, "give me a minute…to open up."

* * *

A minute became 5 minutes, but Kusakabe felt it was longer as possible scenarios went through his mind.

 _Is Sawada lonely and got sick? Then where is his mother?_

Now that he thinks about it, people had been whispering about "the missing happy mother of foreign children with no longer a no-good son."

Once inside, Kusakabe had to force the boy to sit down from making tea. He was debating to ask where his mother was, but Sawada looked as if a slight breeze might bring him down.

"It isn't really necessary, but thanks sempai," Tsuna takes a sip of a warm tea and shivers under Kusakabe's coat. When the Vice President gave him his coat, Kusakabe could not help, but notice how thin the younger boy's shoulders were.

 _So much for relaxing,_ Kusakabe sighs to himself.

The older boy turns to Sawada with a small grin, "You can say I have the same love as the President's for the town, meaning I don't mind at all."

Sawada only hums as he started to nod off. Deciding to stay longer and figure out what is this uneasiness he felt, Kusakabe stood up, "Come, Sawada. Let's get you on the couch. It's best not to risk the stairs."

He really must be tired if the lack of complaints were anything to go by. Once he was sure Sawada was deeply asleep, Kusakabe checks around the house for anything out of norm. He notices the lack of use in Sawada's mother's room.

The toothpick was broken in half, _It's as if she hasn't been around for days, but that cannot be right at all._

He walked down the stairs in deep thought when the phone rang. Unwilling to disturb Sawada's rest from the phone's ringing, Kusakabe quickly answers it.

"Sawada household, who am I speaking to?"

" _Good evening, I am calling in behalf of the Namimori hospital_ ," Kusakabe frowns, " _May I speak with the head of the house?_ "

Kusakabe takes out the broken toothpick from his mouth, "This is Kusakabe Tetsuya, is there a problem?"

" _Oh! Kusakabe-sama! Forgive me, but this is confidential information for Sawada Tsunayoshi,_ " the man spluttered out, losing his professionalism. Kusakabe mentally sighs. It's not like he goes on beating people up all the time just because he is the president's right-hand man.

"That is alright, I could leave a message and I would pass it along to Sawada," he leans over to see Tsuna shiver.

 _Better find another blanket…Wait, how did the hospital know Sawada might be sick?_

Kusakabe calls upon his serious voice and use his status to get the information from the Hibari owned hospital, "Is there something seriously wrong with Sawada?"

There was a sigh, " _The boy's mother is gone, isn't she?_ "

Kusakabe felt the uneasy feeling return, "What is wrong with Sawada, doctor?"

"… _the boy was admitted few days ago. Before he was checked-out, I took some blood work among other things to run some tests,"_ Kusakabe fingers twitched to his pocket for his toothpick, " _The results are in and its official, Sawada has come out of remission and is too far along that he must come for treatment immediately_."

Kusakabe suddenly felt a cold grip in his indifferent soul. Outwardly, Kusakabe spoke in clip tone, "Yes, I would make sure to speak to him. What time would be good?"

" _Anytime would be good. Any guardian or even you would be fine since the boy is still underage…_ "

* * *

After drilling for more information, Kusakabe finally hangs up and processes what he just heard.

"…no Reborn…I don't…don't shoot please…" Kusakabe smiles the usual mutters of the younger boy before he frowns.

Kusakabe takes out another toothpick and fiddles with it.

 _Cancer, the boy has cancer. He is way too young to shoulder such a thing especially with everything he just went through. Doesn't he ever catch a break?_

* * *

For the next hours Tsuna slept, Kusakabe calls in some of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee members to help clean up the house and bring some light soup. He was still debating if he should report the situation with or without Tsunayoshi's permission when said boy woke up.

Kusakabe covers the warm soup and sits down in front of the couch Tsunayoshi slept on. He really didn't want to ask, but he never was one to beat around the bush, "Where is your mother, Sawada?"

The Neo Vongola Primo stares at him for a minute as if trying to process the question. Kusakabe didn't like the empty smile the boy had as he responded, "Gone. She didn't want to go through with it again."

 _So, it was what I feared._ Kusakabe had felt stifled by the unusual silence of the former boisterous house. He looks back at the zooned out younger boy.

By the lack of overprotective guardians that even Kusakabe is aware of, Kusakabe gently whispers, "You should inform the others, Tsunayoshi."

"I can't! I don't—its best—!" The young boy stands up quickly before groaning as he held his head.

Kusakabe guides the boy back to the couch when his legs crumbled under him. He sits next to him and not look at Tsunayoshi directly to not intimidate him. There was silence with exception of Tsuna's quick breathing.

Once Tsuna settled down, Kusakabe speaking up softly, "They will be more upset if you say nothing."

"I know, it's just…" Tsuna stares at his slightly clenched fists on his lap, "The mafia might get hold of them soon and even if it doesn't, they should enjoy themselves while they can. They deserve the break."

 _What about you? It seems the mafia is not what is going to get you first._ Kusakabe decided to let go of that conversation for now, but doesn't mean this was the end of that.

"Sawada?" the boy seems to not hear him, "Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna blinks. He turns to look at Kusakabe.

"We are going to the hospital tomorrow if you are up to it."

The boy frowned almost as if confused, "Okay?"

Kusakabe sighs, "I guess I will make more tea and phone calls. Just stay here and don't do anything until I get back."

When he notices the brown-haired boy panic, Kusakabe pats his head, "Worry not Tsunayoshi. I am just going to call the committee to inform them I am going to be busy for the next couple of days."

It took a minute for the boy to process what that Kusakabe was implying, "You don't have to do this!"

"True," Kusakabe takes out his phone and goes to the kitchen, "but you don't have to do this alone."

His face darkens when he caught Tsuna glance upstairs, probably toward his mother's room.

 _You have many people who are willing to help you. Just as you would do the same_.

* * *

"Tsunayoshi!" the toothpick in Kusakabe's mouth fell and was immediately ignored when he quickly caught the brown-haired boy who lost his footing. Tsuna clutched his chest, trying to get his breath back.

It took a long second for Kusakabe calm his nerves. The younger boy's grip wasn't strong, and tears fell down his face as he tried to get his breathing under control.

"Slow breaths," Kusakabe guided the weakened boy to the nearest chair in the hospital.

They just came back from the second day of treatment. The Vice President might know many things from the newest gossip to where is the President napping in that moment, but these treatments and _illness_ was way out of his league.

"I'm so'y, s'rry…" choked Tsuna after a surprise throw up on Kusakabe's lap.

Kusakabe rubs the other's back in wide, slow circles, "Its fine. This gave me a great idea for punishment for those who broke the rules or even when one of our members steps out of line."

Tsuna hiccupped, brushing off his mouth with the back of his long sleeve shirt.

"Besides, one can't predict these things. One day you can be fine and the next you'll feel like death warm you over," Kusakabe places a coat over the mess and wipes off as much as he can with one arm, while the other holds the boy to show he wasn't going to let him go despite of the mess.

When Kusakabe felt a tugged from his sleeve, he turns to Tsuna.

"I…can you tell the others for me?" the brown haired teenage boy looks at Kusakabe. He barely catches the faint flames in his eyes, "I'll tell them everything when they're here, but Reborn should be aware if he…isn't already."

Suddenly, Tsunayoshi slumps at his side. Fighting the urge to panic and reminds himself at the sight of the slow breathing, Tsunayoshi is still alive, even if unresponsive now.

Kusakabe looks up to see one of the committee members was before him with another uniform and ready for further commands, "Watch over him, while I change. Anything happens while I'm gone, you'll join Yasu in cleaning my uniform by hand as a start."

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Preview:

Then the Ninth looked at Iemitsu, "What are you going to do?"

Reborn caught an underlying message, but unsure of what.

"I," Iemitsu seemed conflicted, until he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, "I will go. I have a duty as a father and it may be too late for such things, but I must try."

The Ninth's eyes showed pride, but then turned serious, "Return when it is time. Do not forget to appoint someone to take over your duties as CEDEF."

"It will be done," Iemitsu bows his head and nods at Reborn before leaving the room.

Once Iemitsu left, the Ninth sighs, "Make sure to keep him in line or Tsunayoshi would be overwhelmed."

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 **A/N:**

 **loretta537: The reactions will take a couple of chapters to get how they respond to the news.**

 **Qia13: Fear not, this is not the end, I have at least two chapters in the works and a couple of sentences for the end.**

 **In times of crisis we unite: Personally I don't have anything against Nana, but I was curious of what if she did?**

 **Thank you once again for reading, as proof I do have something for the next chapter, after these notes is a sneak peek.**


	3. Priorities have changed

**A/N: I seriously thought I posted this chapter, good thing I checked before posting Chapter 4. Enjoy!**

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 **Chapter 3  
Priorities have changed...and you are first**

A whip wrapped around Hibari's wrist, redirecting a hit of a tonfa from hitting Dino's face. Dino snickers when he hauls Hibari over his shoulder before flipping with one hand to dodge a kick to his leg.

Hibari jumps back at the failed attack and makes a sharp turn with one foot. He barely leaned back from another whip entanglement from wrapping around his neck and arm into a lock again. The Vongola Cloud growled with a faint glean of satisfaction after he releases the chains from his tonfas to land a hit on Dino's main arm that directed his whip.

Unfortunately, it was short lived. Dino used the split second of Hibari dropping his guard of relishing his small victory of finally landing a hit, believing Dino not expecting the pain to raise his elbow from his other arm to clip Hibari's chin.

Just as Hibari decided to drop his tonfas and brutally maul Dino, an alarm goes off. Both fighters froze and turns to Romario waving at them with another Cavallone subordinate next to him holding a tray of snacks and towels.

"Just in time Romario!" Dino chuckles.

The Cavallone boss puts away his whip, ignoring the tonfas on the ground. He already learned his lesson from helping Hibari pick up his weapons. He can still feel an echo on his stomach from the harsh and swift hit from someone daring to touch what is Hibari's.

"Hibari," Romario greets the huffing Vongola Cloud, who eyes at him.

"Your phone went off earlier with the emergency ringtone."

* * *

Kyoya walks past the second of command of Cavallone and picks up his dark jacket from the table that was far enough from the fight. Frowning at the emergency notification, Kyoya taps on the link in the message to direct him to wherever Kusakabe is located with a phone nearby.

The first ring barely went off when Kusakabe answered.

" _President_."

Kyoya straightens up at what others would hear as the serious tone of his right-hand man, but Hibari knows better. The other was worried.

"Hn?"

" _We have a situation. Tsunayoshi's mother left town_. _For some reason, her trail is difficult to track._ "

He raised an eyebrow at the strange designation. Kusakabe never was that informal with her. Something must have happened.

"Where?" Hibari wondered where did the mother of the omnivore and the omnivore himself took off to. Although the second sentence makes it sound as if she left behind Tsunayoshi…

There was a sigh. That sounds ominous.

" _We are at the hospital, waiting on treatment for Tsunayoshi_."

"What." Hibari ignores Dino's curious glances.

" _You are the first I called. I would have called his tutor if I had his number, but I will start calling in the others. He shouldn't be alone._ "

"In an hour then," Hibari let Kusakabe cut the call before looking at his tutor. Something must have shown on his face with the way Dino stares at him in worry.

"Is everything alright in Namimori?" Dino asks as he leans on the wall of the training room, holding loosely his bottle of water.

"Call the carnivore, the small animal is at the hospital."

Dino drops his bottle, "WHAT?!"

In response, Romario whips up a cellphone and tosses it to Dino, who barely responded and signals Romario to pack up everything in the resort they reserved for their fights to leave in a second's notice.

* * *

The soft seat barely made any noise as Reborn stretches his long legs as he sat on the chair the Ninth provided in their meeting, internally enjoying the fact he can easily touch the ground from his position. Although he would miss jumping off tables and chairs when he was in his baby cursed body.

Reborn was glad to have left Japan at such a time. He needed to get use to his new body. It was a somewhat mixed blessing the Ninth wanted to have a meeting to hear in person of his student's progress. The only downside was he wasn't aware he would be lucky enough to get his adult body back so soon, even if it was in the middle of the airport. Fortunately, the Ninth was prepared after Mammon and Colonnello suffering the same affect in a middle of mission.

The greatest hitman is looking forward in returning to see how long it would take his student to realize the man who helped him in the Representative battles is him. He had notice how Tsuna catches most of his disguises or at least catches on the glimpse of it, but not once did the teenager catch on the fact the friend of Reborn was Reborn himself.

Tsuna better enjoy the respite before his return. The second he returns, he will bring chaos to Namimori once more.

Now that he is finalizing the last parts of the new training regimen and updates on his student's progress, Reborn must suffer through the meeting with Iemitsu, who sat in his own seat next to Reborn's. The blond-haired man kept shooting big grins at him whenever the Ninth is busy talking with his guardians. It was rather annoying.

Speaking of guardians, Reborn found out that morning how all the guardians of his student were out of town.

 _Dame-Tsuna, you better not do anything stupid._

In that moment, his phone rang. Reborn with a quick silent wave of his green phone at the Ninth, who gives him permission with a nod. Permission granted, Reborn steps out of the Ninth's office. It was icing to the cake to be away from that idiot man who somehow runs CEDEF.

"Chaos," greets the hitman. In response he gets a sobbing mess of words. Reborn rolls his eyes, "Pipsqueak Dino, I cannot understand you. Act like a boss and hurry up. I have more important things to do."

 _Technically not really_ , Reborn eyes the door where Iemitsu was for some reason acting like a chicken, flapping his bended arms with the Ninth's Lightning guardian by his side doing the same.

Then he hears Hibari in the background and some beating before Dino spoke again, " _Reborn! We have a situation! Tsuna is dying-OW! Hibari stop it! Before you say anything, I am not exaggerating...Kyoya wait for me! I'm coming too!"_

Reborn felt something tighten in his chest. He growls out at his first student for clarification, " **Dino.** "

Hibari answered instead, " _Call Kusakabe for more information_."

Then the line went dead. Leon quickly transformed back to his original form and jumps onto Reborn's shoulder to rub his cheek. Reborn pats his partner, internally glad he took the call outside.

Doing something he never done since he was coming in terms in being cursed by the Tri-ni-Sette, Reborn takes a moment to take a deep breath and Leon transforms back into a phone.

* * *

 _Out of remission_.

The words echo in his mind as Reborn stiffly took a seat. When he catches the silence and lack of guffaws echoing in the room, Reborn looks up to find the Ninth's guardians had left the office. Iemitsu was failing being subtle at the worried looks, while the Ninth waited for him to speak.

Reborn, not willing to break down in front of anyone let alone Iemitsu, asks in a bland tone, "Are you aware Tsunayoshi medical history stated he had cancer?"

Iemitsu froze. The Ninth looks at both men before him in worry, catching on what Reborn was implying.

"What are you talking about?" Iemitsu gives Reborn a strained smile before dropping it at the glare directed to him.

Iemitsu quickly tried to remember anything that could hint such a thing, "…I remember Nana left a message back after I visited them with the Ninth. She mentioned something about my little Tunafish was very sick, but that was cured long ago!"

"She _lied_ ," Reborn growled. He had read between the lines when Hibari's right hand man said Tsuna should not be alone.

Iemitsu splutters. Before the idiot could even begin to talk about his lovely wife's virtues or something more idiotic, the Ninth intervened.

"It is best you return, Reborn," the Vongola boss looked even older than he did when the Inheritance Ceremony was interrupted by a harsh betrayal aimed at his pseudo grandson, "Inform me of everything."

Then the Ninth looked at Iemitsu, "What are you going to do?"

Reborn caught an underlying message, but unsure of what.

"I," Iemitsu seemed conflicted, until he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, "I will go. I have a duty as a father and it may be too late for such things, but I must try."

The Ninth's eyes showed wistfulness, but then turned serious, "Return when it is time. Do not forget to appoint someone to take over your duties as CEDEF."

"It will be done," Iemitsu bows his head and nods at Reborn before leaving the room.

Once Iemitsu left, the Ninth sighs, "Make sure to keep him in line or Tsunayoshi would be overwhelmed."

Reborn nods and stood up to leave the office. Once he was outside in the hallway, he walked briskly to the entrance of the mansion. He was about to book a flight back to Japan when he caught a notification in his back up phone. The message informed him the Ninth was ahead of him. All what was necessary from him was to show up.

Now he can fully focus in making sure to show the rest of the tenth-generation guardians of the severity of the situation. If they are not on their way to their sky, well Reborn has found something to let up this pent-up _stress._

When he sat down in the car provided for him to reach the airport, Reborn stares at the green phone in his hand, _Of all things, cancer…_

* * *

"Good afternoon Master," Basil bows, but Iemitsu barely acknowledges the greeting as he walked briskly passed him. Barely sensing Basil following in curiosity and if he needs assistance, Iemitsu froze when he saw his office door opened with Lal standing in her full adult form glory.

"Glad you're back boss," she growled, "Sometimes I wonder if I should just commit mutiny and take over your position with such good work ethic you have, _sir._ "

Iemitsu stares at her for a minute longer until he felt his phone go off, signaling he had a notification. He quickly checks it and ignores Lal's furious questions and Basil's worries.

 _I took the liberty to book your flight. The Vongola jet is ready for takeoff and would leave in 30 minutes. Take care of Tsunayoshi, please._

He looks up at Lal, silencing her with his determined, serious look, "Basil, follow me into the office as well as you, Lal Mirch."

Without questioned, the two obeyed. Once they entered the office, Iemitsu quickly shut the door behind them. Then he strode to his office phone to push a button.

" _Boss?_ " a female voice spoke from a speaker of the phone.

"Oregano, I need you in here in my office as a witness," Iemitsu ordered. He crossed his arms, standing by the phone, waiting for her response.

" _Got it boss. I will be there in less than a minute._ "

The blond-haired man was glad she didn't ask for an explanation. It is rare they have emergencies that didn't consists of being in the field or obvious by all and still get the work done in quick precise manner.

Iemitsu took the time to look over the files left on his desk and saw some of it done as usual by Lal and some were done by Basil, _I really have let myself get stagnant. Either I step it up or get a successor until Basil is trained correctly. It's rather fortunate Basil has others to guide him to become a great boss for CEDEF._

His thoughts were interrupted by a screech. Iemitsu looks up to see Basil looking sheepish as he was halfway sitting down on the chair in front of the desk and had pulled it forward too hard as he tried to sit down. Lal rubbed her face with her hands, muttering to herself.

This only made Iemitsu smile for a split second before sighing. Before Lal and Basil could ask anything, Oregano enters the office, shutting the door on any lingering curious subordinates outside.

She looked around the office before pushing up her glasses with the hand not holding a file, "I tracked your wife down, but Tsunayoshi is nowhere near where she was last seen."

Iemitsu closes his eyes and presses his fingers over his eyes. Sensing questions, he raises his hand, ignoring another notification from his phone.

The CEDEF boss drops his hand, and looks at his secretary, "Oregano take note and as witness of what is going to be said in this room. What is said would be release to the rest of the organization to the discretion of the boss of the CEDEF."

Then he turns to Lal, who subconsciously lifts her chin to look at the blond man in the eye.

"Lal, you are hereby appointed by me, as the current CEDEF boss, to take over my position as my successor until I am able to return to my duties or when Basil is of age. I am taking an emergency family leave and I am temporary taking Basil until further notice."

While the former part Arcobaleno process to abrupt promotion, Basil asks, "Did something happened to Sawada-dono?"

Iemitsu slips for a second his grief, but it was enough for the three present, "It's time for me to do the first duty I have been neglecting."

"Not the only one," Lal mutters to herself, but nods, "By the sound of it, you're on tight schedule. I will send your and Basil's luggage with Colonnello later. You both worry in making the flight."

Iemitsu nods and opens the recent notification. It stated their transportation was waiting outside, "Wish you the best, although nothing much change other than its official for you."

Lal rolls her eyes, with Oregano making a quick message to send everyone for an organization wide meeting and prepared for a press conference to make it official of Lal's new promotion.

When Iemitsu and Basil passed the doorway to outside the office, Lal shouts behind them, "Send my regards to Reborn and the rest of those maggots."

 **.**

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 **A/N: I wasn't planning Xanxus to be in the story and now he is shouting and throwing wine glasses at my muse. *sighs* You may now expect him to turn up in a couple of chapters. As for Nana acting such a way, there really is a bigger reason for her to act so to partially clear up some questions. Let's just say giving birth to a strong sky had repercussions, adding her being young and not having all the information at hand. Until next time,** LaniAhava **out!**


	4. I would do my best

**A/N: Finally I could post this chapter. It was this close of posting this chapter instead of 3 when I thought I've already posted it.**

 **Chapter 4  
I would do my best… to do it right this time **

Iemitsu lingers in front of _their_ bedroom's closed door. He sighs. His hand reaches over the doorknob and a faint _something_ makes his intuition blared. Worried, Iemitsu opens the door and feels a strange wrongness in the room. Officially freaked out and not mentally prepared to face whatever leaked in the room, Iemitsu slams the door shut and finds himself breathing hard on the door way to the kitchen.

He looks up and stares at the lack of constant warmth he is familiar with whenever he is home.

His eyes linger back at the direction of the bedroom and wonders. His thoughts were interrupted by his phone ringing in the loud silence of the empty home.

"Basil?"

" _Master, I have found the shop with good deals for sustenance. Is there more thee wishes, Master?_ "

"Nothing much…just drop off the food and work on checking the whole town with one of Kusakabe's people," Iemitsu mentally shivers at the bland smile Kusakabe spoke through his phone while his Tunafish was being checked over by the doctors.

He knew of Iemitsu was going to check the city over for any sign of his Nana or any foul play and decided to be on watch on any of _Iemitsu's games_.

"The nerve of that kid," Iemitsu mutters in mix annoyance and fondness.

" _Master_?"

"Talking to myself, Basil, see you later," without waiting for a response, he hanged up.

Iemitsu looks through the empty pantry and finds an apron. Without looking at it, he puts it on and prepares the utensils needed for the soup he vaguely remembers his mother cooked when he was slightly younger than Tsuna.

* * *

Something changed. Kusakabe seemed a little more relaxed after Tsuna went in for another checkup after his body disagreed with the recent treatment. Hopefully its good news like a new treatment that doesn't consist of him throwing up and burning in his throat that has nothing to do with fire.

He followed the older teenager to his Namimori DC van, which Tsuna stopped questioning how Kusakabe managed to get a silence. He just puts it down at a Hibari thing. The young brown-haired teen curls up in his seat and dozes off until no time at all, Kusakabe gently shakes his shoulder.

"Tsunayoshi, you're home," seeing Tsuna's confused look, "I won't be staying this time. I have other duties to catch up, but I made sure there is someone inside."

Tsuna looks back to his house and sees a dark window car. A slight cough returned his attention to Kusakabe.

"If _no one_ is by chance in there, you call me immediately and I will have him bitten to death when I find him," Tsuna shakes his head, not having the energy to be horrified at the way Kusakabe smiles innocently at such a thing.

Carefully, Tsuna takes off his seat belt, letting Kusakabe pulled the door close for him. Tsuna knows when to pick his battles, and right now he is willing to take a long nap. Hopefully whoever is charged of watching him would not be bothering him.

Once Tsuna was at the door, he waves Kusakabe off. In response, the VP of the Namimori DC salutes Tsuna before driving off.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna opens the door. His breath caught at the familiar sound of food bubbling in the kitchen. Without a second thought, Tsuna rushed inside, only to freeze at the sight before him.

Tsuna stares. He closes his eyes and pinched himself. Then the teenage boy opens his eyes again. Nope, the image of his father in a pink, frilly apron in kitchen checking a pot on the stove hasn't changed.

There are many things wrong with this, but Tsuna blurt out the first question in his mind, "What are you doing here?"

Iemitsu whirls around. Before the man could respond, Iemitsu shouts in pain. Tsuna stares as his father rushes to the sink to wash his burned hand caused by a spill of whatever he was cooking when he turned around in surprise.

Tsuna sighs and pulls his father over to the sink and place his father's burned hand over the cool water, "You'll think with you being in contact with fire all the time, would mean you know at least how to treat a burn."

Iemitsu nervously laughs, "One would think."

After Tsuna takes out a kitchen clean rag to wrap it on his father's burned hand, Iemitsu guides Tsuna to a chair before going back to check the soup.

It was an awkward silence as Iemitsu glares at the soup while Tsuna look everywhere, but his father. After a while, Tsuna fidgets, "So how long are you staying for?"

There was no respond. Tsuna couldn't tell what his father could be thinking with his back to him. Just as he was about to give up, Iemitsu responded, "Don't know."

"Oh, okay. Just give me a head up at least when you leave," Tsuna said. He was putting his head down on the table when he jumps at the sight of his father whirling to face him with a very serious look.

"I am not leaving until you get better!"

Tsuna blinks and chuckles darkly, "You do realize this isn't going to ever go away, right?"

He was offended when his father dared to stare at him with an intense look. It isn't like he wanted to get this _thing!_

Suddenly to his surprise, his father sighs and turns around. He caught him mumbling, "Typical. I am doing this wrong… I cannot even get something as comforting your own kid right…stupid parenting book…stupid old man who never even cared, stupid, stupid, stupid."

Tsuna gaps at this and slams his head on the table. He ignores his panicking father.

 _Seriously, why can't things ever be simple!_

* * *

The train station was bustling with people. Most were frustrated when a couple of trains were being delayed for some strange extreme weather of a strange fog.

"What the heck, Cavallone?!" Hayato growls at Dino.

Takeshi and Ryohei were still in uniform, barely catching their breath as they caught the earliest transportation from their respective competition location to find themselves faced with Hayato being held back by Bianchi and Lambo for once quietly seeing the proceedings without his usual inputs to antagonize.

"So, we're going together, Dino-sensei?" Takeshi asks.

Ryohei looks at his sister who had followed him to cheer him on in the competition. The teenage girl takes out her phone and quickly looks for a taxi.

Her search was interrupted when her phone rang for few seconds, warning of an incoming message. Kyoko checks her message before looking up at her brother, "Haru and Hana offered to give us a ride in their bus, Onii-san."

"EXTREMELY LET'S GO!" Takeshi nods, still trying to catch his breath, he had run a couple of miles after his bus that would have taken him to Namimori broke down midway.

"—we'll meet up in the hospital, we shouldn't be here wasting time in letting the others catch up!"

"OI! OCTUPUS HEAD! WE'RE CATCHING A BUS, YOU COMING TO THE EXTREME?" Ryohei shouted. Behind him, Kyoko offers to help Takeshi with his equipment, but she only gets a shaking head and a grateful smile for her trouble.

"But-but! Kyoya is the only one who knows where Lil' Bro!" Dino ruffles his hair in frustration, still trying to locate the disappeared Vongola Cloud guardian.

"Maa, maa," Takeshi huffs good naturedly, "Did you forget there is only one hospital and owned by Hibari?"

Dino blushes, then Romario came running, "Boss! Hibari took off with one of the rented motorcycles!"

At this Dino facepalms. When he looked up, he finds Tsuna's guardians quickly running at the entrance of the station where a bus just parked.

* * *

Reborn huffs to himself. His flight was postponed at the landing. Something about a possible terrorist attack from someone of his flight.

 _If it was me, they wouldn't have known until it was too late,_ Reborn thought to himself at the security line.

He shows his special identification card, bypassing the full security checked in. Finally, out of the airport, Reborn searches for a ride before he decides if he should call one up. Fortunately, Kusakabe waves at him, standing in front of the van.

"Chaos, Kusakabe," Reborn tilts his fedora forward in greeting.

"Iemitsu Sawada has already arrived at the location," warned the pompadour teenager. Reborn pulls down his fedora to hide his fury.

 _That idiot isn't going to let me down for coming after him despite leaving before him._

One of the Disciplinary Committee members pick up the one luggage Reborn had next to him and carefully place it at the back of the van.

Reborn takes shotgun and shuts the door behind him.

"We will arrive in a couple of minutes," Kusakabe shifts gear and practically shots out of the airport. Reborn only nods, but worried what insanity Iemitsu would do when he isn't there to rein the man in.

* * *

"Ah!" M.M. sighs in pleasure, sinking into the hot water, "This is the life."

The red-haired girl was enjoying a nice hot spring all to herself after Chrome quickly excuse herself for a call.

"You boys better not be peeking!" M.M. eyes at the wall that separated the males and females. She hears a squeak and splutters from the other side of the wall.

"Too late. Ken already has a nosebleed," Chikusa deadpans from his side.

"L-LIES!" Ken choked out.

M.M. sneers at the wall and debated if she should get out and blow their ears off with her clarinet. Suddenly the door slides open on her side and Mukuro appears with his arms crossed, "Time to go."

"KYA! Mukuro-sama! You shouldn't get a peek before our wedding night!" M.M. sinks into the hot spring and dramatically places the back of her hand on her forehead.

When Mukuro closes the door in response, M.M. sighs in disappointment at the other's lack of reaction.

"OI! Stop your perverted habits and let's go!" shouts Mukuro from the other side of the hot spring.

"Speak for yourself!"

Then a scream followed the retort.

"Kufufu, care to repeat that?" Mukuro darkly asked.

The door slides open again, showing a fully clothed Chrome, holding M.M.'s clothes.

M.M. sighs to herself and reached for a towel to wrap around her body, "Alright, I give. What's the hurry?"

Chrome glances at the wall in worry, "Mukuro-sama verified something, but first we must visit Bossu."

"Of course, we do," M.M. rolls her eyes, but quickly puts on her clothes. She takes out her phone and opens an app, "Air, ground or teleport?"

"Too many of us to teleport, besides we still have another mission after visiting Bossu," Chrome walked out of the hot spring room to join the other teenage boys at the lobby.

"I guess we should use the air. For some reason there had been strange cases of fog and mist on the ground transportation," Mukuro responded, twirling his trident.

"It is odd. To think it started almost a week ago. Wonder what could have caused it?" M.M thought out loud.

"Well, they better have food at that Sawada house! I am going to be extra hungry if we're traveling all night long!" Ken spoke a little strange with a napkin stuffed up his nose.

"Regardless, we still have to find the quickest and affordable transportation," Chikusa's glasses glowed for a moment, "We are after all short in time."

"Ano, I found one. A bus would be passing this way," Chrome interrupts.

M.M. scowls when she leans over to read the message Chrome was reading, "We're going to sit with those losers?"

"Kufufu, shame the Skylark won't be joining them with his allergy of crowded spaces," Mukuro gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment before perking up, "Tsunayoshi-chan would be so ever pleased to see us again. Soon his body shall be mine!"

Most of the Kokuyo gang caught the fake cheer in his voice, wondering what exactly making Mukuro leave their hard-earned vacation so abruptly.

No one noticed Chrome gripping her phone tightly.

* * *

"Hello, I-Pin," Fuuta gives a slight bow in greeting before gasping in surprised at the sight of an older looking Hibari. Then he caught the familiar wardrobe and grins, "Mr. Fon! Congratulations!"

"Thank you, Fuuta," Fon smiles, but Fuuta catches a faint worry.

"Is there a problem?" Fuuta asks. He looks back when Spanner and Shoichi, who has been his patrons for his summer tech camp had began running back and forth between computers and other gizmos behind him.

"How are you, Fuuta?" Fon asks. Fuuta turns and looks confused. Even I-Pin stares at her master curiously.

"What is going on?!" Shoichi shouts behind them. Curiously, the three went to see what was the panic all about.

Spanner was nibbling on his lollipop, concentrated in typing quickly into a window next to what seems to be a weather map.

"I see," Spanner mutters to himself. Fuuta leans over to see over the mechanic's shoulder. He caught a glimpse of levels in a rainbow color graph named Elements of the Sky. The Mist flames had charted values constantly raising and falling.

"What does it mean?" Fon asks.

Shoichi looks over and mumbles a couple of calculations before looking at Spanner, "What is the timeline we are looking here?"

"I estimated this strange phenomenon started a couple of days ago. It was rather abrupt," Spanner trails off and sees a notification on his email for emergency contact.

"Mm?" Spanner twirls the lollipop in his mouth as he read the message and tilts his head, "Search for Shamal?"

Suddenly the screen flickered, and no sign of the message was shown in the inbox. This had Spanner and Shoichi quickly check the computer for any weird virus or attack for such thing.

While Fuuta looks at I-Pin in confusion, Fon takes out and stare at his emergency phone linked to the rest of the Arcobaleno since they transformed back to their old bodies, remembering the last message.

 _Watch over the kids, don't come back home until I say so_

 _-R_

* * *

Tsuna barely able to peek out of the many comforters, blankets and even some towels his father dropped on him after pushing him to rest on the couch.

When the doorbell rang behind him, Tsuna tried to wiggle out of the mountain of suffocating warmth to open the door. Hopefully whoever is at the door is one of Kusakabe's people and can save him of the insanity of an overprotective father.

Unfortunately, the bell rang loud enough to cut through his father's quick shower. The minute he hears the water shutting off, Tsuna increased his wiggling. It took a minute too long since he was starting to doze off before the door rang.

Relying on the torturing training from Reborn, Tsuna was able to slip out of his restraints and jumps over the couch. To his regret, he used up too much energy and barely caught himself against the doorway of the living room leading to the entrance of the house.

He isn't sure how long he closed his eyes with his forehead against the cool wall until his father's shouts broke through the dizzying spell Tsuna tried to overcome.

"OI! Ring that doorbell again and I'm killing you!"

"It wouldn't be a problem if you didn't change the doorknob on me. Appreciate I am polite enough to at least ring the bell and not break into the house," growled a deep voice. Tsuna lifts his face and sees his father angrily pulls the door open, glaring at the person he yet to see.

Tsuna's blurry vision cleared up. If he wasn't still trying to catch his breath, Tsuna would have gasped at the sight before him.

"Puts some clothes on. You're embarrassing Tsuna," the other voice steps inside and takes off his very fancy dark shoes.

Iemitsu crosses his arms, not all bothered that a towel was stating to slip from his waist, "That's rich coming from you. You've been running my son around town in his underwear!"

Although confused how Reborn's friend would do something Reborn done, Tsuna barely gasps out, "Save me, please! He's gone insane…!"

Reborn's friend only gave Iemitsu a scowl before quickly guided Tsuna back into the living room.

"Did you just tried to drown your son with fabric?" the fedora wearing man tsked in annoyance, but Tsuna only focus how gently the older man placed him in another sofa and place only one blanket on him.

"He said he was cold!"

Tsuna groans as he felt his father's voice vibrated everywhere, _Great it's going to be one of those days!_

He felt a cool hand on his forehead before a warmth taking all the ache away. While he still felt the lingering something wrong in his body, now he can easily go to sleep without worrying in dying via suffocation and splitting headache.

Just as sleep pulls him over, Tsuna opens his eyes a little to see the familiar fedora and curly sideburns.

"Thanks…Reborn…"

* * *

"You're trying too hard, Iemitsu," Reborn said, but made no effort to turn around. There is no reason for Iemitsu to see him blushing at the words his student gave him. Seeing how Iemitsu is focused on his son and not hearing the muffled angry mob outside, Reborn shifts Leon to accommodate Tsuna in form of a pillow.

"Bring a thermometer, Iemitsu," Reborn mentally sighs in relief when finally the mob silenced outside.

"Why don't you?" Iemitsu whines behind him.

Reborn stares at the ceiling, praying for patience before looking back, "Consider this as a way to redeem yourself in your ability to care for your son."

He kept glaring and partially amused at the stubborn look the man gave him, making no move to leave the boy's side, "And yes, you may still keep the baby monitor you're using to keep an eye on your kid."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Iemitsu climbs up the stairs, clutching tightly at the loose towel.

Once he was sure he was gone, Reborn peeks out the window, seeing Kusakabe and some of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee members blocking Tsuna's guardians from entering the house. Hopefully they will pay good attention on the orientation of what its expected of them in caring Tsuna.

 _Maybe I will do one personalized for Iemitsu,_ Reborn mentally snickers, eager of another student to teach. One is never too old to learn something new.

Unaware to the hitman, his hands were still in Tsuna's hair, messaging him with faint Sun flames, making the teenager go in deeper, untroubled sleep.

 **.**

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 **A/N: Beware~**  
 **While somethings are just simply are, one should never forget that in KHR! nothing is ever simple or ever solved in a practically way.**

 **Upcoming chapter will have many feels and angst, would there be comfort? Until next time,** LaniAhava **out!**


	5. It's not your fault

**A/N: Warning angst up ahead, but it would get better…maybe :3  
.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **Chapter 5  
It's not your fault…for I'm being afraid**

Hayato took out his small notebook, clicking his pen, "Since when did Juudaime started to get sick?"

"He was diagnosed for 8 days now and been going for treatment for a higher chance to live longer or at least for return to remission,"

At the last word, Hayato looks up from jotting down notes in horror.

"Remission?"

"The doctors said its cancer, and apparently before he went remission was when he was a child and it was a close call…"

But Hayato stopped hearing those words, and slowly stepped back. Unnoticed, Kusakabe directed everyone back into the van to quieten and not disturbed Juudaime from his sleep as he began to give instruction.

At the new heights of overprotectiveness focused toward one person, everyone easily overlooked one who constantly done it before was unnaturally silent until it was too late.

.

.

.

 _"Eh? But he was right behind me?"_

 _"Extremely strange! You think maybe he was…kidnapped to the extreme?!"_

 _"…No."_

Tsuna groggily tried to open his eyes. Feeling a little stiff, he turns to stretch only to find himself airborne and fell off his bed.

"HIE—uff!" to his surprise, Tsuna landed on something soft. His clutches the supposedly hard floor to find out it was a couple of pillows stretched on the side of his bed—no he was sleeping on the couch—as a safety measure.

Apparently, someone knows him so well…

"TSUNA!" "LIL' BRO!" "EXTREME LITTLE BROTHER!"

For some reason Tsuna felt someone was missing from the shouts. Sitting up from the ground at the sound of rushing steps toward him, Tsuna almost fell back on the pillows spread across the floor by the sudden dizziness he's experiencing. Thankfully Ryohei caught him from landing on his face and helped him sit up.

"Onii-san?" Tsuna cleared his throat when the word sounded a bit rusty for him and tried to talk again, "Shouldn't you be at the competition?"

"FINISHED EXTREMELY EARLY!" Ryohei rubbed his nose, not looking at Tsuna in the eye.

Tsuna narrows his eyes. Before he can question the boxer, Lambo jumps on Tsuna and pulls his face toward his own.

For a long moment, they stared at each other before Lambo deadpans, "Don't die."

"Eh?!"

"Haha," Takeshi quickly pulls the little Lightning flame wielder from a dazed Tsuna, "Come on, help me out get food ready for everyone."

Tsuna blinks and wonders why Hayato is outside, peeking from the other side of the fence wall. Not willing to understand the implications, he turns to the rest of his friends.

"So what's the emergency you," Tsuna yawns, "decided to come back."

He rubs his eyes to chase away the sleep, missing the looks from his friends. He did catch the silence. Worried he looks up and catches them not looking at him, "Is there another fight or problem again?"

"No, now drink the soup that your potential wife made for you," Reborn came in, placing the tray of food on his lap.

"Reborn's friend!" Tsuna frowns, and the room seems to hold their breath, "That reminds me, you left before I could thank you!"

"For someone who is very good in seeing through disguises, you sure are oblivious," Reborn's "friend" sighs.

"Eh? Reborn is here?!" Tsuna looks around and catches his father make a strangling noise before glaring at Reborn's friend.

Tsuna points his spoon at his father, "Dad, don't be rude. Just because he was able to defeat you at the battle, doesn't give you permission to be sore about it."

Tsuna takes a sip and hums happily. He tried to look for Kyoko and possibly Haru, but didn't see them.

A deep chuckle, interrupted his search, "Heh, that blond idiot has nothing on the best."

"Don't let Reborn hear that. He might do something crazy to contradict you, friend or no friend," Tsuna warns before taking another spoonful of the soup.

"Gwahaha! Yeah~! Only Stupid Reborn can defeat Reborn!" Lambo crackles in Takeshi's arms.

To the relief of his guardians, Tsuna forgot about his interrogation of their quick return.

* * *

"So…um…" Iemitsu and Tsuna were left alone in his room after everyone left, in exception of Reborn's friend who is currently downstairs cooking up something with Basil.

Tsuna purposely ignored his father, wondering where did Reborn go. Not that he didn't like his tall cool friend. Despite there was something about the man being overly familiar and his guardians—most of them—give him mix looks of confusion and exasperation when he asks where is Reborn.

"Did I tell you the time of my little sister beating me up when I accidently set her favorite doll on fire?"

Tsuna turns to his father and shook his head, "Wouldn't blame her."

"Yeah," his father's look turn wistful, but then chuckles, "For someone who wielded no flames she sure knew how to freak out everyone, while wrapping everyone's fingers. Surprisingly even my father's. That is true achievement."

Tsuna sits up from his bed. He never heard about his paternal grandparents before. Then again, his father isn't even present to talk about anything about his family. Taking absentmindedly the pillow his father offered him, he clutches it before leaning forward, "Was…grandfather strict?"

"Strict? Nah," his father stares at his hands, which he went from clutching and loosing them on his lap, "He was a tyrant. Nothing satisfied him and he…took preference to me at times because I was the only one who wielded sky flames. Not that I blame him."

Tsuna stares at him. Something about that phrase didn't sound right. At face value, it was rather arrogant of his father, but his look was distressing.

"So being the middle child, I was surrounded by an older brother and sister and twin younger sisters. We hated each other's guts. If it wasn't for our mother, we would have burned the house down despite at the time only 80 percent of us having no flames."

"What did she do?" Tsuna curiously asked.

Iemitsu says nothing for a moment before he whispers, "…she loved us until the end."

Before Tsuna processed the fact of his father looking so broken, Iemitsu beams brightly at him, "I can look for some photos! My mother was in an awesome play that your mo—Anyways, from what my dear mom told me is what swayed Father's steel heart!"

He sighs, "Sometimes hearing you scream such a high pitch reminds me when my mother sang. If you learn to control that, you could reach notes not many people could. Maybe you can try out for a play or something."

Tsuna who was engrossed in the story, groans and buries his face in his pillow.

"Not funny, Dad!" his voice was slightly muffled inside of his pillow, but his father chuckles.

"Seriously! Maybe Reborn can help me compare her and your old recordings and—"

"No! Please for anything that is pure don't!" Tsuna was horrified at the possibility of more blackmail from his demon tutor.

* * *

It was strange. Takeshi stops in the middle of a joke to turn to his side only to find the comforting incensed gray-haired teen missing. He understands how the situation is scary. It still doesn't excuse Hayato from making Tsuna upset and hurt despite of how everyone knows Hayato is spying them from far away.

He knows he must be strong and be the calm that everyone needs. To give relief to the father who decided to stay after never being present before, to the teacher who see a potential failing by means out of their control, brothers who cannot protect against something not seen. And friends who finally came together only for another test straining their bond between each other.

Kneeling in the middle of the dojo in the dark, Takeshi meditates. His sword shine at the reflection from the rays of moonlight streaking through the top window. The turmoil threatens to flood him in despair, barely held back by the will gained since the day Tsuna saved him from his fall literally and figuratively.

After hours into the night, Takeshi still felt high strung from the fear of what could be. Sensing his father in deep sleep, hours away from waking up to prep the food for the new day at TakeSushi, he stands up and picks up his sword.

The sword swung in sharp arcs with a slight twist of his wrist and the span of his arm, although lacking the usual rain flames. Invisible enemies only seen in his mind eyes were cut down brutally with no mercy from his steel gaze. With quick jumps and silent landings from every part of the dojo, still his rising tsunami wasn't silent.

Taking a moment to breath, Takeshi glares at the nothing.

"Tsk," the dark-haired teen slides his sword into its sheath and stared at his shaking hand, "It's not enough."

When the room drenched into darkness at a cloud covering the moon, his eyes narrowed at the sudden inspiration.

* * *

Outwardly, Hayato blankly stares at the path before him, ignoring everything and everyone. Internally he was freaking out and the storm draining the little common sense he had left.

After being told what is wrong with Juudaime and what is expected and prepared for, Hayato couldn't shut down every possible scenario fly through his mind: to face with the prospect of another person so dear and precious and his everything is leaving him once more.

(Hearing about in another world he lost him years down the world was bad enough and now sooner…?)

He doesn't know what to do. Hayato is never a coward, but he still found himself unable to enter Juudaime's house. It was a rough couple of days of holding back his usual instinct of sticking to Juudaime side, which meant literally. Yet this time, he cannot do it.

Instead he worked from afar and redirecting any weak well-wished classmates from daring to go to Juudaime's house. And if a teacher scoffs of how weak constitution Juudaime has, there is no link between him at the strange bad luck from bad credit score that prevented them to get a better house to getting thrown off their desk every time they tried to sit down.

(Personally, Hayato wanted to blow them out of the Earth's orbit, but he had sworn Juudaime he would never blow up people unless by his command.)

Few times he came across with his classmates, some brave—stupid—enough asked him how Sawada was doing. As if these idiots ever truly cared about Juudaime before?!

(When a small voice in his heads whispered, _Besides why would you know what is going on?_ Hayato quickly mentally blows him up.)

When he neared his tree chosen for his new mission, Hayato takes out his disguise of a small bush of leaves and climb to his tree branch. Lifting his binoculars, he aimed them toward a house that was a couple of blocks away. He observed for any ill-intent assassins before checking over Juudaime's condition through the usual open window.

So far Juudaime released a loud sigh, unheard from Hayato's current distance once the former was left alone in his room for few minutes. Suddenly the brown-haired teen turns his head and locked eyes with Hayato's.

Leaves rustled in panic, the bush almost fell off the tree. Hayato lifted his binoculars again but caught Reborn has returned from wherever he was with food. Knowing Juudaime was in good hands, Hayato decided to call it a day. That is until he saw that Nezu passing by.

"Don't think I didn't heard, rumormonger. Soiling Juudaime's name, idiot."

He summoned his dynamites, but made sure not to lit them up. After all he must keep at least one promise from Juudaime.

* * *

"Anything, Bianchi?" Dino asking. Papers were thrown everywhere, marking off doctors not fitting the bill.

"Che! None," Bianchi checks her wrist watch for any new messages before kicking the marked off stack, imagining it being a certain perverted doctor's face.

Dino looks up to see Romario, who shook his head. The Cavallone boss curses before he turns to Bianchi.

"You think he isn't answering because he's enjoying the whole summer time love nonsense?"

"Bad try," she rolls her eyes.

Dino grins at Bianchi, ignoring her personal bubble space, "Don't you mean, nice try?"

Bianchi scoffs, flipping her hair to her back, "It was pathetic all the way."

Dino pouts for a moment, until he eyes her biting her lip, "Don't worry, he'll come around."

The young woman knowing he was talking about Shamal, huffs with hint of worry, "He better. Reborn is increasing his punishment each day and still able to hide his presence other than know he is nearby. Idiot brother."

* * *

Shamal was chasing down a lovely lady.

And by that, he means they were run away, screaming in terror. He had checked at the nearest mirror that nothing was afoot. Shamal has trimmed his beard, fixed his hair and his lab coat is white as the snow.

He breathes out and smelled his breath, "Huh. I still smell minty, what else could it be?"

A young woman next to him froze, slowly lowering her phone. She gaps at him, ignoring the angry caller talking from her phone.

"Well hello~! Shocked at my handsomeness—"

"GWAHH!" She ran off, barely dodging the rushing cars.

Shamal's shoulder slumps, "I'm getting too old, aren't' I?"

Suddenly a whisper in the wind brought a shiver down his spine, " _Go…back…_ "

Looking around, Shamal tried to pinpoint the voice's location. Silencing his breathing, he waited for the whisper. After a few minutes of waiting, he sighs. That is when he realized the street was empty and a fog has set in.

"Alright then…I know this place is the place where lovely ladies wait for the other loser men," Shamal takes out his phone, but then felt someone tugged on his lab coat.

Worried, Shamal turns around and found the fog disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Sound exploded around him and to his shock, the area was full of people once again.

He looks down at his lab coat and catches lingering unstable mist flames. Before he can think about what it could mean, his phone went off, making him scream in terr—surprise, he meant surprise.

* * *

Once again, the silver haired teen made his way to the school, but never going into class—not that he is afraid to a certain baseball idiot—while still not getting bitten to death by the demon prefect. The memories of his mother covered his loneliness.

Staring at the sky with dull green eyes, he bitterly smiled, realizing he never was over his mother's loss as he previously thought. He confused it with the fact he was coming in terms with being with Bianchi and somewhat tolerating his father by their recent visit.

 _She's dying._

 _He has cancer._

 _She didn't want to worry you._

 _He wanted you to enjoy your trip—_

 _Despite how she didn't have much time left—_

 _No matter how scared and in pain s/he was going through_

 _Your mother…_

 _Juudaime…_

 _…wanted you to be happy._

"But don't they know, their absence would hurt me no matter what," Hayato mutters to himself.

Staring at his hand that subconsciously pushed the door, he found himself on the school's rooftop. Before he even tried to process why he was there, he forgot to breath.

This was _their_ place.

Overcoming the drowning— _breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out_ —with a quick pivot, Hayato rushed down the stairs, oblivious of the dark looks from the Namimori Disciplinary Committee member stationed at the back of the school shot at him.

Then a mental scream escaped his mouth in a strangled whimper at the sight of the new location. The place where he swore to always be there for Juudaime.

 _I am such a hypocrite,_ Hayato drops on his knees and pulls his hair. The bomber fought the urge to hit his head against the school's wall.

Unfortunately, something or rather someone interrupted his moment of gloom.

"There you are," a soft, but cold voice spoke behind him.

Hayato froze, for a moment dreading it was Hibari or even Takeshi, but then that would have meant he would have been beaten up by now instead of being talked to.

Confused, Hayato turns to stare at the unblinking eye of Chrome Dokuro. She wasn't fidgeting with her trident or her uniform, when she was normally shy of any attention paid to her.

Unable to bare to stare of her violet, piercing eye, Hayato looked away. He casually stood up, tugging his hands in his pockets while trying to act nonchalant, "Do you need something?"

"Do I?" She began her silent walked toward him, which he wondered if she placed an illusion at his inability to move.

"Or do you, Storm-san?"

Hayato's hands turned into fists, itching to throw dynamites to scare her off, but said nothing.

"I don't know what your problem is, but you shouldn't take it out on Bossu," he can almost feel how close the female mist wielder by her intense look from where Hayato stood glaring at the wall before him.

"Shut up! Y-you don't understand," Hayato's shoulder tensed, hating himself when his voice cracked.

He waited for the other's response, hoping she wouldn't give him something cheesy. He isn't up for those now.

"It's alright to be scared, you know," Hayato turns around in anger, but it sizzled out when he saw Chrome's haunted look.

"He is as scared as you are, even if he isn't showing it," Hayato frown at him confused, as Chrome goes on.

"When I was in the hospital, told I was going to die, not even going to make the month, I cried," she stared at him, not judging, "I cried that I never had a chance to live. Always doing what Mother wanted me to be, only to be left behind and be marked such a way that it costs me my life. Being alone is…scary. The silence of the unknown, outside of my room, was too much and not worth the energy if no one even cared."

"Then Mukuro-sama visited me. Me, who was nothing and no one. He simply reached out and showed me his smile."

Her soft smile made him unsure especially of hearing such a personal story from the girl.

Either she ignored it or wasn't fazed by his unease, Chrome gave him another intense look, but with a hint of thoughtfulness, "Storm-san you don't have to do anything other than be by Bossu's side."

Placing her hand over her chest and the other on Hayato's she smiles, "Be his Mukuro-sama."

Hayato's eyes widen realizing how similar she is to him even if the situation is reverse in a weird twisted way, _This girl would follow that pineapple to ends of the earth and through any horror._

"He's my Juudaime, none of that weird Pineapple head stuff, Dokuro."

In response she nods.

Just as she walked off, Hayato calls out, "Oi!"

The violet eyed teenage girl stops.

"You—Thanks for watching Juudaime when I couldn't."

Chrome tilts her head, hid her eye under her bangs, "Of course, we are his guardians and…friends."

Chuckling to himself, he strides toward Chrome. They both walked to the school gates only to stop when an explosion went off in front of them.

"An attack?!" Hayato quickly summons his dynamites, but a hand was placed over his unlit sticks.

"It's just Rain-san playing with Cloud-san."

Sure enough, Takeshi stands up from the crater of the explosion. A sharp look toward the sky exposed Hibari's location before another explosion went off at the clash between tonfa and sword.

"EH?!" Hayato gaps at the strange way of familiarity the two fights.

"They had been at it since before dawn, only after making sure Sun-san and Haru-chan agreed to take his shift," Chrome unfazed as usual kept walking, followed by a shocked Hayato.

Once her words processed, Hayato looks at the female mist, "Shift?"

Not looking away from staring ahead, Chrome enlightens him, "You have many shifts to make up Storm-san. Reborn-chan threatened if you don't show up today for the evening shift, Takeshi is taking your position."

"Oh fu*k no!" Hayato grumbled and stomped out of the gates. He suddenly stops, realizing something.

 _I need to get hold of Shamal. Maybe…he can do something. Now where did I put the emergency number...?_

He quickly takes out his phone and dials for Shamal's number. It took two phone calls when Shamal answered by breathing hard on the speaker.

"Don't want to know about any of your current conquest. Juudaime needs your help…I am willing to do anything. He…please…"

" _Conquest? As if I have time for that. I have a situation to deal with…_ " static covered up what Shamal was saying, frustrating Hayato. Before Hayato could growl out a threat, Shamal's voice returned, but with a hint of hysteria.

" _Sure, fine. Whatever. Don't know what kind of voodoo curse you sent me, but I'm on my way!_ "

Hayato stares at his phone, only to be suddenly hit hard on the head.

"What the heck?!" Hayato rubs his head while clutching his phone.

"About time you showed up, it's a good thing you got hold of that pervert, else I would join Reborn in punishing you," a female voice spat, but the relief was there for Hayato to hear.

He looks up and stares at Bianchi, standing in front of Juudaime's door. He subconsciously peeks over her shoulder and sees Juudaime doing the same from the couch. Catching Hayato's look, Juudaime squeaks and slides down the couch.

"You're such a maiden, Tsunayoshi," teased Bianchi.

"Please don't tell Reborn!"

Hayato looks up the stairs to see Reborn himself rolling his eyes. It seems Juudaime still hasn't figure out the man was Reborn, and it was confirmed when Juudaime beams at him.

"Hayato's back!"

At the happy declaration, Hayato blushes and bravely enters the house.

Only to fall into the ground and moan in pain at the sight of Bianchi taking off her goggles when she saw Reborn.

* * *

 _PREVIEW_  
In a tiny corner of an Italian café, hidden from plain view without use of illusions, the Varia mist wielder and his part-time apprentice sat, enjoying their few minutes break from the recent Varia mission.

Mammon lifts the hot drink to his mouth and blows gently before taking a sip. He didn't bother correcting Fran's messy manner of slurping his juice after swallowing a large bite of his sandwich. There are things he is bothered, but Fran is Fran and there is nothing he can curb his eating manners other than telling him not to sit on the table and chew with his mouth opened.

 _Sometimes I suspect that Mukuro bribe the little brat to misbehave with me when it's my turn to mentor him._

Suddenly, a disturbance shimmered through Mammon's senses, who stiffen in surprise. Something was different, caused by something or someone who isn't powerful, but very subtle.

Fran broke into his thoughts, staring at something in confusion, "Mamma? What is she doing here in Italy?"

.

.

.

 **A/N: Da-da-da-dum!** **What is going on with Shamal? When will Tsuna know its Reborn? And the Varia will not be happy being out of loop, even if something suspicious is going on…. Until next time,** LaniAhava **out!**


	6. I would have not known

**A/N: It has been a lo-ong while, hasn't it? I had to leave the country for vacation/study (I highly recommend it, its a nice reminder how small one is, but how much there is yet to learn about the world, so exciting!).**  
 **Anyways, just a heads up, there will be less tenth generation to be seen in this chapter than usual. Fortunately, I present the Varia (and a certain doctor) and some are not quite happy to be out of loop. Enjoy!**

 **.**

 **.**

 _What do you mean?_ = _Thoughts_

 _"What do you mean?"_ = _Through an electronic device_

 **.**

 **Chapter 6  
I would have not known…but I do now**

In a tiny corner of an Italian café, hidden from plain view without use of illusions, the Varia mist wielder and his part-time apprentice sat, enjoying their few minutes break from the recent Varia mission.

Mammon lifts the hot drink to his mouth and blows gently before taking a sip. He didn't bother correcting Fran's messy manner of slurping his juice after swallowing a large bite of his sandwich. There are things he is bothered, but Fran is Fran and there is nothing he can curb his eating manners other than telling him not to sit on the table and chew with his mouth opened.

 _Sometimes I suspect that Mukuro bribe the little brat to misbehave with me when it's my turn to mentor him._

Suddenly, a disturbance shimmered through Mammon's senses, who stiffens in surprise. Something was different, caused by something or someone who isn't powerful, but very subtle.

Fran broke into his thoughts, staring at something in confusion, "Mamma? What is she doing here in Italy?"

Confused, Mammon follows his line of sight and it takes a while of waving some of his mist flames around him to clear the strange image across the street. Beyond the shimmering hot streets of Italy, stood Nana Sawada looking lost and surrounded by a strange miasma of flames of the Mist.

His student once again interrupted his observation, "So she finally broke her self-made illusionary hallucination. I wonder if she could teach me that."

Mammon turns to Fran in confusion, "Are you implying that woman wields flames of the sky?"

"Since I knew her, but never used it consciously," Fran chugs the rest of his juice before burping, "I think she made herself forget."

The Varia's main mist glares at his student from under his hood, "That is not how it works."

"You're right. I need more juice and swallow it faster to beat Pineapple's doggy's belch," Fran stands up on his seat and was about to call a waiter when Mammon sends tendrils to wrap his impolite apprentice to sit back down.

"Not that! I meant the flames," Mammon glares at Fran's blank look, "She cannot possibly wield flames like that."

Fran sits down and stares at the rope tied around him. Wiggling in his seat, he breaks free and looks up blankly, "You act as if you know everything there is to know about flames. Even I know no flame is alike despite of being from the same flame affinity."

Before Mammon can retort, Fran sighs dramatically, "Well, she's gone now."

Sure enough, Mammon sense nothing. In fact, the whole area seemed more at ease than it has been earlier.

"Agh, I am not paid enough for this," Mammon grumbles.

"You can say that again," Fran pokes at the new frozen treat before him, "You don't even let me have more than seconds."

Mammon stares pointedly at the stack of juice boxes next to Fran's empty cup.

"I'm hungry. I'm a growing fairy."

* * *

"I don't know why I thought accepting to return to Japan will make this weird thing stop," Shamal mutters to himself. The whole female population was parting like the sea as he tried to walk toward a group of women.

The difference between before Hayato called and now is this time he can see a strange miasma of mist flames at the corner of his eyes that is becoming more solid by the hour.

Train stations were closed at the areas he needed to take then buses were breaking down by their engines suddenly dying. It was only after he left the area, he heard how the transportation system worked again.

 _All is left is the taxi service_ , he narrows his eyes and waves one down.

To his relief, nothing out of the usual happened. Quickly entering and stating his stop, Shamal relaxes in his seat.

After releasing a breath that he didn't realize he was holding, Shamal looks around. There was a lack of pressure and mist flames. Wary, Shamal opens his white lab coat to take out a small box he just received from the Bovino. He opens the small box and taps on the first row of pills to activate the opening mechanism to release his special variety of mosquitoes. Shamal was grateful their buzzing was too silent to be heard from the back of the car for the driver to listen as they fly up to hear their orders.

"Seek and take any sample of unnatural flames."

He carefully opens his window and lets all, but one mosquito fly around the area.

"Sir, we are about to reach your destination in seven minutes," called out the taxi driver. Shamal grunts as he looks at the small computer he has to track his mosquitoes' location and information they recovered.

The lone mosquito buzzed before the taxi driver curses, "I was just assigned to this new car!"

A spluttering from the taxi's engine sounded like his luck when the car turned off along with all the vehicles around the taxi.

Shamal curls up in his seat and groans, "Not again…"

The lone mosquito buzzed comforted him by his ear.

* * *

The leader of the Assassination squad "loyal" to Vongola, the feared Varia, grumbled to himself at another weekly update meeting disguising the "father and son" bonding time he loathes.

He ignored the courier at the Vongola Mansion's entrance, who feebly tried to stop him, something about his father in an last minute meeting. He would careless if the old man was meeting with Vindice, but that old man forced him to these meetings for almost a month now and the Ninth would have him for wasting his time when he could be sleeping and drinking (the latter he had to cut down from the alarming amount of missions, scaring the more troublesome tentative allies from insulting a certain tiny boss heir).

Xanxus sauntered once he reached the hallway to the Vongola boss office, only slightly curious at the mixed muffled sniffing and hard looks from the cleaning staff. While they were not aimed at him, they seem to be listening something from the slight opened door of the Boss office.

"…regardless, I am happy for you, Iemitsu. I…have always regret to have young Tsunayoshi be deprived of your presence."

Xanxus frowns at the almost clear sound of speaker from the office phone. And the old man wonders about the constant gossip from the office getting around the mansion.

" _I for one am grateful this idiot wasn't here to spread his idiocy on my unsuspecting student_ ," a deep voice of a certain broken cursed hitman spoke with a hint of static.

The Ninth chuckles before asking gravely, "Speaking of, how is he?"

Dread pooled in his gut, but he didn't stop walking silently toward the Vongola Boss' office.

Iemitsu sighs, " _…the results are still not consistent. At times it says the treatment is failing and he is close to the point of no return, but other times, they are scratching their heads saying he is getting better. "_

 _Treatment?_ Xanxus narrows his eyes.

He was at the doorway looking in to see the old man's shoulder shaking and his hand covering half his face, yet his voice sound strong, "Young Tsunayoshi is always fighting against terrible odds. He will overcome this."

" _…this is different. This is not something physical that can be beaten. His own body is rebelling against itself ,_" the voice choked, " _he's too young to have this, dammit!_ "

Then a yelp was heard that made Xanxus scoff.

This caught the old man's attention and for a second looked remorseful before giving him a sheepish smile, "My, how the time passes. I am getting forgetful with my age. Please forgive this old man for not realizing our meeting, Xanxus."

" _Eh?! Since when he has been listening?! He didn't hear about the boss position being potentially open, did he?!_ " another yelp was heard.

" _Shut it! You'll wake up my student_ ," Reborn hissed quietly.

"What are you trashes hiding? I careless if that baby boss is on his deathbed," he narrows his eyes when the old man flinched.

" _Take that back you bast—OW! Curse you Re—!_ " the phone call was cut off.

Xanxus slams his hands on the desk, "What is going on, old man?!"

The Ninth looks up with deep sorrow and grief.

* * *

The last meeting of the day was meant only for the upper echelon of Varia was underway in the Varia Mansion least destroyed room, which in this case, Lussuria's cleaned room (no one really talks about the usual room, its dirty in every sense of the word). The meeting is was usually updates on any news, or an excuse to hang out and complain about useless stuff, something that Squalo dreads. Yet tonight there was a distinct imbalance. While Bel, Lussuria and Levi were their usual annoying selves, it didn't affect the other half of the guardians.

Squalo narrowed his eyes at the distinct lack of thrown wineglasses and Mammon's fiddling with coins on the meeting table. He turns to his boss who was staring straight ahead with unfocused eyes while gently swirling his full glass of his preferred drink. Then he turns to Mammon, who recently foregone sitting on the table at his sudden weight from his transformation to adulthood had him get his own chair, was sitting with his arms crossed. The main Varia mist user was muttering in the way he does when he tries to locate something difficult.

"VOI!" Squalo slams his hand on the meeting table. The Varia Rain mentally cursed himself, realizing too late he had used his sword arm when said table broke in half.

"That better not come from my paycheck," grumbles Mammon. He ignores Squalo's glare, returning to muttering nonsense words.

"What is wrong with you?!" Squalo waved his sword arm encompassing the whole room.

"Shishishi, the prince doesn't know, only when boss came back from Vongola, he destroyed all the training rooms, even yours, Sharkie!"

Squalo stares at him before turning to Xanxus who showed no signs of listening. Its rare to see him like that. Actually, Squalo hasn't remembered ever seeing the boss like that since that time he had his memories from the future it never was. As matter in fact, Squalo remembers his future self, reacting quite similarly when he found out the baby boss was…

"VOI! WHAT DID YOU FOUND OUT FROM THE NINTH?!"

Xanxus looks up, blinking, not quite there yet.

Fran who was staring at the ceiling, listening something no one could hear pipes up, "Maybe he found out the Vongola kid's mom lost control of her mist powers or she did something to him?"

"Shishishi, what nonsense you're saying Fran?" Bel smirks before throwing a couple of knives at him.

"Ow! Fake Prince! Stop ruining M.M. present," Fran froze for a moment before shrugging, "Actually keep going. I hate that weirdo."

"Tsunayoshi has cancer," everyone froze at Xanxus' words, "it has been weeks and no one had said nothing."

"Oh my! That's terrible!" Lussuria gasps, "Are you sure? Sky flame users cannot have that especially with…!"

When Lussuria looked down and stopped talking for more than a minute, Xanxus stood up and clicks his gun toward the former.

Lussuria looks up and pouts at the gun at his face, "Mou! Surely a sky user as powerful as Tsunayoshi-chan can harmonize his own body to fix the problem. I have never heard a case of a sky user having such thing."

"VOI! WHERE IN THE WORLD YOU HEARD THAT?!"

"Verde messaged me just now," Lussuria lifts up his phone from his lap. When it vibrated he turns it to himself and reads, "Our Mist spoke to Verde right now."

Squalo turns to see Mammon clutching his arms in deep concentration.

"Ah, master, you're still trying to find Mamma?" Fran shakes his head in disappointment.

"Wait, what is this about seeing that trash's missing wife?" Xanxus growls, but strangely controlled. Squalo's hand sword twitches in preparation to deflect a bullet or a thrown wine glass that would soon happen.

"Missing? Shishishi, what is going on? Is that why Lal and Colonnello are making more presence in CEDEF more than usual?" Bel picks up part of the table and stabs it with one of his knives before throwing it at Fran.

"Ow," Fran pats his cheek and picks up the stabbed wood and throws it back at Bel.

"Shishi-ACK!" Bel had calculated the speed of the wood only to realize too late Fran fooled his eyes and scratch his cheek. Despite of no blood, Bel growls, "You're dead!"

Bel jumps at Fran, who caught unaware, was thrown back, crashing into Mammon who just snapped his eyes open.

"FOUND HER—" Unfortunately at the high quanlity of Mammon's mist flames in use needed precise concentration, was broken by the skirmish between the youngest members of the Varia.

All the Varia was engulfed by the flames and disappeared without a trace from the mansion.

* * *

Colonnello looks over the stack of paperwork he volunteered to work on for Lal, "Verde? What do you want, kora?"

"Mm?" Verde stood absentmindedly with his hands in his lab coat's pocket, "Can you not tell I am in a conversation?"

The people around him sneak disbelief looks, while Colonnello nods understandingly before going back to working on paperwork. Suddenly the silence was broken by flying knives, manly giggles and deadpan complaints, as well as a loud shout.

"That's not good," Verde comments. A bubble formed around Verde, reflecting any attacks toward him, unfortunately it made a mess of the large office within the CEDEF building.

"What the heck, Mammon?! I'm working here, kora!" Colonnello sensing the familiar transporting mist flames. Furious, he takes out a giant bazooka and his partner, Falco flies in to support by dropping grenades to redirect any damages from hitting venerable areas. The passing CEDEF workers quickly push back all the papers, knowing Colonnello would be otherwise murderous than Lal on her Day.

"VOI! Where are we, Mammon?!" Squalo shouted, but he didn't get a response. Looking around he was horrified to realize that not only Mammon wasn't with them, but his boss and Levi were missing as well.

"What do you guys want?" Colonnello asked, taking advantage of Squalo's sudden silence.

Verde strolls by the Varia to pat the top of Keiman, his alligator partner and commented, "You only found a third of her essence, which is now in my lab."

While Colonnello stares at him in confusion, Fran punches his fist into his other palm, "You mean Mamma?"

Colonnello frowns at the Varia then narrows his eyes at Verde, "You do realize she is the mother of the very one who helped break our curse?"

"Of course," Verde's glasses flashed, "I am trying to put her back together before she causes more mayhem. I have to fight urges of letting her run amok around the CEDEF building."

"How is that woman causing this?" Lal asked from her position next to Colonnello's seat.

"Did something happen?" Lussuria tilted his head curiously, "You never called sweet Mamma such a way before."

"This isn't the place to talk about this," Colonnello mutters with a warning glare.

"Shishishi," Bel twirls his knives, "So that means the Boss is with the other third."

"This is why you are freaking assassins and not spies," Lal mutters to herself pushing everyone into the main office,"cannot even shut up for one second."

Bel walks pass her to take a seat and lifted his legs on the small table in front of it, "Yet we get the job done."

Once everyone else was inside the office, Lal checks to make sure the room was secure enough for a classified meeting.

Fran climbs on top of another sofa and sits on it, "Speak for yourself, you big faker."

Suddenly Fran tilts his head, "Seems like the missing third attached itself to someone. Wonder why."

"VOI!" Squalo shouts, waving off Lussuria's offer of tea to ask Fran, "What exactly is going on? Mammon isn't here to explain!"

"Stop yelling," Fran sticks his finger into his ear and makes a dramatic pained look, "Afterwards we should ask why the scary scar lady call Mamma differently."

The Varia looks at Colonnello and Lal curiously.

"Like the little brat said, afterwards," Lal sighs, messaging her forehead.

"I'm more curious how you sense her missing part," Verde takes out a notebook from Keiman's mouth and readies himself to get answers.

"VOI! AFTERWARDS! WE NEED CLUES TO WHERE THE BOSS DISAPPEARED TO!"

Fran taps his chin for a moment and nods to himself, "So it began in a midsummer day…"

"Kill me now," Lal mutters to herself.

* * *

Tsuna sighs.

"Tsunayoshi-sama? Pray tell, what ails thee?" Basil glances over Tsuna while still first place in the racing car game, with Tsuna a close second.

"I really shouldn't be playing around," Tsuna winces at the explosion of his car that moved his second place to last in the racing line up. He lowers his controller to his lap, and fiddles with the buttons.

Basil pauses the game and tilts his head curiously, "Thou art must doth instead?"

Tsuna frowns trying to decipher Basil's words. Once he estimated what he meant, Tsuna responded, "Run around the neighborhood."

Basil stares at him unblinkingly, "I beg your pardon, Tsunayoshi-sama?"

Tsuna turns to Basil with a severe look, "Reborn would know I'm lazing around and would torture me to make up the lost time."

At this Basil slowly turns to Reborn's friend, who was lightly napping and ignoring pointedly at the grumbles of Master, who stepped out of the room to get more snacks, then back at Tsuna, "Thou wilt rest. Fear not, Reborn be understanding of thee."

"Probably," Tsuna looks down at his controller, before pulling up his blanket to see Hayato quietly snoring by his feet. Then he notice Ryohei and Lambo looking up innocently while holding a marker over the dynamite user's half-marked face.

"Really?" Tsuna deadpans.

Lambo shrugs and goes back making weird swirls and cow pictures over Hayato's forehead.

"Octopus head stills needs to pay," Ryohei loudly whispers, which makes Hayato mumble in his sleep. Everyone froze until the silver haired teenager curls up more around Tsuna's feet.

"Pay for what?" Tsuna frowns.

"Don't worry about it, nii-chan," Lambo pats Tsuna's shin before pulling the blanket over their heads and Tsuna's lap, "You keep playing."

Tsuna's eye twitched before he sighs, blatantly ignoring the little bumps moving around and the muffle giggles.

"Thou hast the wondrous of guardians," Basil beams at Tsuna who blushes.

"Friends, Basil. They're my friends," yet a small smile escapes his exasperate look. Tsuna turns to his side at the small stack of video games given to him when he was told to take it easy, "Let's play another game. I hadn't played it for a while and I want to see if I can beat you this time."

" _Tsu-kun…_ "

Ignoring how all the electronics of his house flickers, Tsuna chokes at the familiar female voice.

"Kaa—?"

Suddenly there was a large thump landing by his bed, waking up Hayato, who smoothly stood before him with his dynamites up. Next to him, Ryohei lifted his fist up and Lambo readied his bazooka to be used at one hand and reaching for more weaponry in his hair with the other. Basil slid out his Metal Edge from between the mattress, still sitting by Tsuna's shoulder for any attack from behind. Reborn's friend only opens an eye, but fiddles with his (rather familiar) green pistol.

When the large lump stood up, he hears from outside of his room a couple of running steps climbing up the stairs.

Shocked brown eyes met red eyes of a familiar scarred face.

"XANXUS?!"

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 **A/N: Thank you everyone who fav/followed this story as well as reviewed. Upcoming next we will see what some of the other guardians up to and would Tsuna figure out Reborn?  
Until next time, **LaniAhava **out!**


	7. We face the light

**A/N: Oh dear, this chapter was going to be barely 1K, but then the plot became clearer and run off from me. Enjoy!**

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 **Chapter 7  
We face the light...as our shadows lengthens behind**

Xanxus stares at him with an unreadable expression, "You don't look like you're dying."

"Hey that's a rude thing to say!" Lambo snaps, only to squeak at the death glare he gets in response.

Tsuna quickly grabs Lambo and casually takes his markers.

"What do you want?!" Hayato snaps at the Varia boss. Ryohei eyes them warily, ready to jump in at any time.

Tsuna barely holds his scream at their protectiveness. Then again the Varia boss seems calm, although Tsuna fears maybe his fever is back because Xanxus actually looks amused.

Then Levi burst out laughing, "What is that on your face?! You look more stupider than usual!"

"Eh?"

Poor Hayato, he still wasn't aware of the graffiti on his face. Tsuna isn't sure if he should put him out of his misery or not. Sometimes his best friend can be unpredictable.

"This really is a security breach," his father mutters to himself before directing the question to the Varia boss, "What are you doing here, Xanxus?"

"Checking if the Decimo position is open yet," he smirks when Iemitsu and the rest of his friends panicked.

The brown haired Vongola heir groans into his hands, only to stop at the sight of the cloaked person passed out by his feet.

Leaning over his bed, he stares, "Is that Mammon?"

(For some reason, Reborn's friend slaps himself and his father shots an amused look before glaring at the Varia boss with suspicion).

"Hm," Xanxus picks the person up over his shoulder and looks at Reborn's friend, "Where can I put this thing?"

Tsuna didn't hear his response when he felt a sudden drain. He curls up to the nearest person, which by the dirty blond hair at the corner of his eyes, must be Basil.

"Master, I beg thee to lower thy voices," Basil barely vibrating from his whispers as Tsuna began to fall asleep. His eyes fluttered, barely catching another weird look from Xanxus, but he was too tired to decipher it.

"Xanxus…make…yourself at…home," Tsuna mumbles before he drifts off to sleep.

* * *

"Ha, ha, ha, ha," huffed Fran gaining annoyed looks, "What? That was a joke."

"K-ching," Bel throws a couple of knives at him, which once more were not dodge, instead it went through him, "Try again, froggy!"

With a swirl of mist flames, Fran appears next to the Varia storm, "Fine, be boring."

Fran looks back at his audience, "I seen this before with my parents you see. They mentioned

something about my fairy powers making them be funny and one day they were gone.

You know I think I was invited to a party afterwards, but no one was having fun. Lots of crying, and lots of black clothes. Weird."

The Varia mist in training blinks at the horrified and pitying looks of everyone in the room.

"What?"

"Shishishi, you went to a fun—ack!" Squalo slaps his sword over Bel's head.

"Alright then, that explains nothing much," Squalo grumbles and slightly speaking louder, but not enough to be heard outside asks, "Explain what is going on, Lal!"

Fran frowns at the obvious topic change. He catches the pensive look of Verde and teleports next to him.

"So what's the plan Weird green plant?" Verde in response jumped and narrows his eyes at the unfazed bored look of Fran.

He sighs, "Nothing much, just need to gather some old research."

"Always working so hard, sweetie?" Lussuria clasps his hand together and tutted.

"I'm older than you," Verde deadpans, "Do something productive and nag the new temporary CEDEF boss."

"Oh~! That reminds me, its cleaning day at the mansion. Best to call them up," Lussuria reaches for his phone, but stops at a realization.

"You~hoo! Lal dear!"

Lal looks up from her search of papers to show the Varia, "What?!"

"Can I make a quick call and activate the Varia shutdown? Its cleaning day and it has been postponed too long," Lussuria pouts.

"Agh! Fine, just make it quick," Lal signals Colonnello to temporary deactivate the high security shield for only Lussuria's phone.

Fran joins Lussuria and watches how the Varia sun enters the Varia network and pulls up the intercom app.

" _ **Oi! Dearies! Its springtime cleaning~**_ "

Through the view screen, in hi-def showed everyone screaming in terror and running for the nearest exits.

"So excited today," Lussuria giggles. Lussuria points the hidden button to Fran. The mist apprentice excitedly taps on it, activating the Mansion shutdown. Lussuria nods to himself and prepares to sign out when someone showed up in all of the security feeds of the Mansion mainframe.

"Mamma?" This catches everyone's attention.

"WHAT IS THAT, KORA?!"

A faint ripple of Nana Sawada took over the mansion cameras, unseen by the cleaning frenzy of the Varia subordinates. Her face was full of regret and blood dripping from her mouth.

" _My son, my poor son…what have we done to our poor boy…_ "

Just as sudden, the footage clear up and shows only the subordinates.

"Yeah, that's my cue," Verde taps the floor, exposing a hidden panel.

"Verde you son of a—"

"Relax, its just one of my inventions, which I am not selling," Verde straightens his white lab coat, "I am heading to get some research and theories done. I'll call or whatever when its concrete."

Verde waits for his partner to jump in before letting himself. Just as the panel closed, Verde shouts, echoing strangely from all around, "You know where to call me for any updates and get Iemitsu to call me."

They stare how the panel disappears. Fran walks on it and jumps, "There is nothing under there."

"Obviously, k-ching, this is the top floor and we would have heard screaming from the floor below us."

"Great, so there goes the cut and dry theory of Nana Sawada abandoning her child in his moment of most need which she would have easily made it easier."

"Mamma left the Vongola-nii?" Fran asks, but a hint of distress.

Bel grabs the youngest in a chokehold, "My little frog, did I ever told you about the time I killed my brother with a spoon?"

Fran stares at the older boy then at the others who were grouping together to talk about something. Curiosity won over, "How many times did you kill your undead brother?"

"K-ching! It was one of my personal favorite. I might do a demonstration later with you playing my brother."

Fran wrinkles his nose, "How about I play the stupid fake prince and you play the undead idiot wannabe king?"

Bel once more lets out a creepy laughter, but has yet to let go of the tight hold. Normally he could easily escape his grip, but Fran felt funny.

 _Either I'm felling some twist form of brotherly bond or I'm hungry,_ Fran pokes his stomach.

"What are you doing?"

"I think I'm hungry. We were suppose to have lunch by now," he ignores the fact he already ate before returning the mansion.

"VOI!" Squalo shouted getting the two youngest Varia members to turn to the secretive group.

"We are going to eat lunch then figure out where the boss went!"

Lussuria pats his tear covered cheeks, "Then we help a family heal and come together again!"

"What are you—" Fran begin only to stop, tilting his head, "You think Weird green plant will know if Mamma's mist flames travel through phones?"

"Fran," Lal looks at him like she is wondering if he's making a joke, "What are you talking about?"

The lights flickered then everything shutdown. Cue curses and crying around the building.

"Oh sweet merciful clam! I didn't save this week's report!"

"I'm stuck in the elevator!"

"Where's the bathroom?!"

"Wimps," Lal mutters.

"Or we can stay here," Lussuria puts in.

Suddenly the lights turn on.

"DunDun-Duun! The poltergeist agrees! What else does she want? Until the next episode, the Varia Undead, the best supernatural beings show their superiority."

"Froggy who are you talking to?" Bel eyes at him with something close to worryingly.

Fran pats his arm comfortably, "Worry not fake prince, its best for you not to know."

Just as Bel ready to jump Fran, someone knocks the door.

"Lal, we have alarming reports you should see," a male voice spoke from the other side of the door.

Lal sighs, "You may come in, Turmeric. We just finished anyways."

"VOI! ALSO BRING FOOD, WE HAVE KIDS WHO WILL WHINE IF THEY DON'T EAT!"

"Don't forget the fruit snack too~!" Lussuria outs in. Lal groans to herself with Colonnello patting her back.

At this Fran narrows his eyes, _How amusing, they do care._

Fran sighs and walks toward Squalo with Bel joining them.

 _Still, I wonder why Mamma would do that?_

* * *

"Has there been any changes or explanation why the baby boss is like this?" Xanxus broke the silence in the dining room.

Iemitsu glares in suspicion, but cried out. The Young lion of Vongola rubs his foot and looks at Reborn in contempt.

"Not as of yet," Reborn puts down his coffee mug, "I just sent a message to Verde, since the hospital results were inconsistent."

Xanxus snorts and waves his wine glass, provided by Levi, "You seriously didn't start of getting the brat the best of what Vongola offers?"

At this Reborn narrows his eyes, "You probably would have not noticed by your transportation, but all other transportation to and out of Japan have stalled."

"What?!" Mammon gasps from the stairs.

"Greetings Viper," Reborn lifts up his mug to his lips, "Had a nice nap?"

"Shut it," the Varia's Main mist guardians grumbles, floating carefully to the table to sit down.

"Chairs, don't know if I missed them or not," Reborn nods at Mammon's words.

"Explain baby?"

"Are you making a move, Xanxus?" Reborn tilts his head and smirks.

Xanxus stands up and summons his pistols, only for Mammon hiss, "Do you seriously want to wake up the kid, let alone have Mam—" Mammon frowns and stares at the two men.

"Can you explain to me what the heck is Mamma in Italy?"

At their shock looks, the former Arcobaleno mist sighs, "I'm guessing even you were not aware of her latent Mist flames?"

Reborn eyes at him curiously, "How do you know it wasn't someone playing with her image or—"

"Or possession? My student actually pointed it out she always had them, even used them constantly," Mammon stares at the ceiling, "He said she wasn't aware she was doing it, stating she was using them against herself."

A silence fall over them as they process this.

Reborn takes another sip of his coffee. Once he puts it down, Leon, his chameleon wraps around his wrist.

"And if she lost control of them…" Reborn began.

"…it was because she couldn't cope with the reality and self destructed," Iemitsu sighs and rubs his face.

Xanxus rolls his eyes and drops his wine glass by his side to Levi's awaiting hands.

"What's done is done, my Rain and the rest of your trashy group will figure out," Xanxus stands up and goes to the door.

"Where are you going?"

Xanxus sits down on the entrance and takes off his boots, "Baby boss told me to stay."

"Well, I say you leave," Iemitsu points at Xanxus then out the door, "and say there."

Xanxus gives him a dead pan look.

"Reborn," Iemitsu turns at the hitman and hissed something close to a whine, "we cannot have him stay here."

"Technically you're the one trying to be in Tsuna's good graces, who also the man of the house."

"Can I have that in writing?" Someone rasps out.

The three men look up at Tsuna who leaned on the banister with Basil hovering. It seemed the other guardians left for the day or in Lambo's case, sleeping now since its bedtime for the latter.

"What are you doing up, trash?" Xanxus growls.

Tsuna only grins knowingly before shrugging.

"Had a weird dream," he frowns, "Then Mukuro hijack it and fill it up with pineapples and chocolate before Chrome dragged him off."

Xanxus knows how that goes, that Fran child does it all the time and its no wonder with who is one of his masters. How dare that kid fruit hat child tease him the best wines and alcohol only to never get to taste it.

His pondering gets interrupted by the giant idiot's apprentice.

"Tsunayoshi-sama could no longer slumber. I recommend a story from Master to assistance."

Tsuna turns red, "I didn't said that!"

Unfortunately that irritated his already raspy voice into a nonstop coughing fit. Basil quickly pulls him away from the stairs and worryingly takes out a handkerchief.

Pushing past the panicking men, Xanxus stomps up the stairs. By the time he reaches the top step, Tsuna was trying to catch his breath, cleaning up some blood he coughed up.

Basil blinks at the sudden loss of weight in his arms and looks up at Xanxus carrying Tsuna.

"You heard your apprentice. Story time," he glares at Reborn who had a green camera with a smirk.

Yet he did nothing, afraid to disturb the feeble, but unrelenting clutching hand of the baby boss. Red eyes met fevered glowing fire eyes. Xanxus stands tall despite the heavy trust placed to him. Part of himself hates how the other part is already making plans of being part of the rooster to watch him.

Its only right he is returning the favor in not only getting his mist back, as well as his hands from their last fight with Vindice.

"Fine, I'll be going up," Iemitsu raises his hands in exasperation before turning to Reborn, "Check the other kids and where Shamal is at currently."

He grumbles something about a late doctor, but Xanxus pays no heed. He nods at his lightning and mist as a bid of goodnight and walks careful with the precious cargo in his arms.

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 **A/N: Once again** _ **merci**_ **for all your support for this story. I'll try to post a chapter for each story I already have in the works. Until next time,** LaniAhava **out!**


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